Birds of the Air
Matthew 13:31-32
November 19, 2006
What do you think it takes to have God work in your life? What does God require from you? Who'll share a few thoughts?
Do you know how small a mustard seed is? It's like a big grain of sand. During the time of Christ it was deemed as the smallest possible thing that could be seen by the human eye. It is barely perceptible. It weighs nothing, it can hardly be felt in the hand, it's almost invisible…it's a very small thing. There is no way a human being would sow one of these seeds. It is a ludicrous notion to a farmer. You would throw a pile of them out onto the soil, but you wouldn't take the time to sow one. It is a ridiculous notion.
It is also ridiculous to imagine that from this small seed comes a bush that will grow up to 10 feet high 8 feet wide. It produces an enormous amount of shade and seed that draws every bird of the air for sanctuary. Out of a tiny seed, almost invisible to the eye, comes this thriving bush that is often mistaken for a tree.
It takes the faith of a mustard seed to allow God to work in our lives. It requires so little. We don't have to be perfect. We don't have to be ready. We don't have to have a plan. We don't have to look a certain way. We don't have to come from a certain family or have a certain family. All we have to do is to be open to God working in our lives. And, the amount we need to be open, believe, trust, is the size of a mustard seed. God can work in our lives if we can create enough space for a mustard seed to take root. An enormous, living, life giving sanctuary can grow from that tiny space with God's action. And, this isn't something that we need to wait until tomorrow to have or some time in the future. We can have it today. This Jesus changed the waiting and instead invites us to leave this cultural empire and join the movement where God is still speaking.
Being part of this movement also allows us sanctuary. When we can move ourselves to open that tiny bit, we find Holy places where God's Presence is tangible. Places where we find safety and space.
But, it's not stagnant space. I recently overheard a conversation between two people eating lunch in a restaurant. It was two men. One I would guess was about my age and the other was in his early fifties. The younger man was talking about his church. He was an elder and grateful to have this community in his life. He was a business owner and had recently lost his father. The older gentleman was talking about the new pastor at their church. He was trying to engage the younger man about some changes in worship over the past few weeks when the younger man said. You know, life is hard. And, I take comfort that there is some place that hasn't changed…It is called a sanctuary after all!
I shivered. Safety doesn't come from a stagnant God. It's a myth and an illusion. Our lives are difficult, and this living is hard. However, our Still Speaking God is with us on this journey. And, we can interface with this God if we would just open ourselves a mustard-seed space. This parable isn't about growing a church. This story is about growing our faith. It doesn't matter who we are or where we are on the journey, an oasis is waiting if we can just open ourselves to the Presence and find sanctuary in this evolving, calling, speaking God.
Often times we are so busy living in this world. So busy naming everyone in this world. So busy judging how our neighbors are living and pigeon holing the strangers we forget that this isn't the world we're called to. We're called into a world where a young girl gives birth to the incarnation of God. A young, unmarried girl, in the poor section of town, with an older boyfriend, and the word is, it's not his son. What about these girls who give birth on the bus? What about these girls that give birth high on drugs? What about these girls who abort? Where are they finding oasis and sanctuary? What about their children? How are we working to pray for them, embrace them, include them in our sanctuary, help them to find sanctuary? How are we speaking to them in parables, of their own words and metaphors that they might find enough courage to open that mustard seed of room for God to plant a sanctuary.
Often times we are so busy living in this world. So busy gaining the stuff of success as measured by our culture that we can't see how it's burning up our living. We're so seduced by all the stuff, the pace, the schedule, the plan that we lose who we are and what we're called to be. We forget to make any space. Then, we become depressed like things are impossible. But, the mustard seed reminds us that nothing is impossible, and creating this space allows something new to grow which will attract all the birds of the air and nurture and support them.
We have the opportunity today, to throw it all off. The schedule our bosses set for us. The schedule our families set for us. The schedule that the world is setting for us and trade it all in for a little bit of space to transform our living. Taking that little bit of space allows us to open ourselves to buying into this Still Speaking God. It opens ourselves to hearing what God has to say. Because, when we open that space we become new people. People who have really different values. Values that drive us to embrace our neighbors, no matter who they are. Values that call us to leave the judgment to God. Values that put God first. Values that allow us to see all the other stuff through the ethics and teachings of our faith. Values that require us to think, measure, and engage our faith in this living. And, all that it takes, is that barely visible, tiny space for God.
Let us pray